More willful ignorance
15 August 2008 by StardustIf you are a flat-earther, you believe this NASA photo is a fake.
Do they really think the Earth is flat?
In the 21st Century, the term “flat-earther” is used to describe someone who is spectacularly - and seemingly wilfully - ignorant. But there is a group of people who claim they believe the planet really is flat. Are they really out there or is it all an elaborate prank?
My grandfather was one of these people who believed the first flights into space were fake, and the mission to the moon was all fake. He said it was all created by Hollywood to fool the American people, but he could not provide possible reasons for going to such extremes to fool the public. There are still many people who would agree with my grandfather, that we are all being fooled. But I don’t think my grandfather thought the Earth was flat, yet there are some who still in 2008 who believe the Earth is flat.
On 24 December 1968, the crew of the Apollo 8 mission took a photo now known as Earthrise. To many, this beautiful blue sphere viewed from the moon’s orbit is a perfect visual summary of why it is right to strive to go into space.
Not to everybody though. There are people who say they think this image is fake - part of a worldwide conspiracy by space agencies, governments and scientists.
Welcome to the world of the flat-earther.
We may question if flat-earthers really do exist in these modern times of space travel and exploration, wondering how anyone can possibly still believe such things despite evidence to the contrary, but as BBC News reports:
Flat earth theory is still around. On the internet and in small meeting rooms in Britain and the US, flat earth believers get together to challenge the “conspiracy” that the Earth is round.
“People are definitely prejudiced against flat-earthers,” says John Davis, a flat earth theorist based in Tennessee, reacting to the new Microsoft commercial.
“Many use the term ‘flat-earther’ as a term of abuse, and with connotations that imply blind faith, ignorance or even anti-intellectualism.”
How many flat-earthers are still around?
Mr McIntyre estimates “there are thousands”, but “without a platform for communication, a head-count is almost impossible”, he says. Mr Davis says he is currently creating an “online information repository” to help to bring together local Flat Earth communities into a “global community”.
“If you will forgive my use of the term ‘global’”, he says.
And what about the vast quantify of evidence that proves the Earth is round, the photographs, the many men and women who have gone up in the space capsules and shuttles?
“The space agencies of the world are involved in an international conspiracy to dupe the public for vast profit,” says Mr McIntyre.
John Davis also says “these photos are fake”.
And what about the fact that no one has ever fallen off the edge of our supposedly disc-shaped world?
Mr McIntyre laughs. “This is perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions,” he says. “A cursory examination of a flat earth map fairly well explains the reason - the North Pole is central, and Antarctica comprises the entire circumference of the Earth. Circumnavigation is a case of travelling in a very broad circle across the surface of the Earth.”
Debating these flat-earthers seems like it would be even more exasperating than arguing with religious fundies. They make up answers for every question, and they reject the proven science and believe what they choose without scientific evidence.
15 August 2008, on 4:30 pm
Cognitive dissonance, man. Cognitive dissonance.
15 August 2008, on 4:36 pm
I do have to credit the biblical flat-earthers (is there any other kind?). At least they are consistent about being consistent in THEIR interpretation of “God’s unchanging word.” They don’t make up s**t to explain away the biblical passages that reflect early (ignorant) man’s view of the heavens. They stick to their guns.
Contrast that that with modern Christian fundamentalists who work overtime to explain away or reinterpret passages to mean something different from what their fundamentalist brethren fervently believed in the past (eg. slavery).
And, if they cannot sufficiently come up with a plausibly explanation for why a passage in “God’s unchanging word” must be understood differently now, they can just label the followers of its previous incorrect interpretation as “not real Christians.”
15 August 2008, on 5:56 pm
There was an episode of the Infidel Guy where they had a guy on there explaining the flat earth thing. He wasn’t a flat earther.
I will admit, I read the stuff on the fake moon landings, but I don’t buy it. My ex father-in-law did though. I did have an excellent story idea involving the fake moon landings, but it was so simple I doubt I could turn it into an entertaining 90 minutes.
15 August 2008, on 5:58 pm
It seems really odd to me- well, no, scratch that, there’s nothing odd about it at all. But, wasn’t it the ancient Greeks- Pythagoras or, maybe, Archimedes, who established mathematically that the earth was indeed round? ? Something about the shadow cast by an obelisk in two different places at the same time on the same day of the year? Okay, so my remedial geometry is rusty. And didn’t the Phoenicians maybe even know it sooner than that? Point being, there hasn’t been any legitimate argument to the contrary in, what, twenty-five hundred years or so? Yet, even as late as Columbus’ time, the Church-riddled Europeans were worried about the abyss awaiting them at earth’s end?
It really blows my mind to think how much we, so-called Western civilization, knew collectively- about life, about the natural world, by the Golden Age of Greece and how we, seemingly, burst a cerebral aneurysm, leaving us to spend the next two millenia relearning how to think critically, rationally, even with the christianist running dogs nipping at our heels the whole way. When I mention the world would be better off without the manacles, the TBI, the performance-preventing drug of christinsanity, this is often what I’m thinking about; what if Copernicus, Galileo, DaVinci, Kepler, had been born into the next generation after Archimedes, Socrates, Pythagoras etc.? Their respective observations and theorems are certainly not so far removed from one another and you can bet your ass I’d have had that flying car that Popular Science promised me before William the Norman stepped foot on English soil.
Christianity- monotheism in general- has out Pol Pot-ed Pol Pot in terms of it’s dealings with intellectualism.
15 August 2008, on 6:41 pm
Okay, okay. You don’t believe the pictures from the moon, Mr. McIntyre? Howsabout if we get some landsat photos of you, ogling your next door neighbor over the fence, while you’re punishing your meat puppet? Howdat?
15 August 2008, on 9:46 pm
The first time I saw a flat-earther web page, I thought it was satire
““People are definitely prejudiced against flat-earthers,” says John Davis…”
Naw–mostly I feel sorry for the brain-injured.
““Many use the term ‘flat-earther’ as a term of abuse, and with connotations that imply blind faith, ignorance or even anti-intellectualism.”
How else are we supposed to use it–you put the fish in the barrel for us and handed us the loaded shot-gun
““The space agencies of the world are involved in an international conspiracy to dupe the public for vast profit,” says Mr McIntyre.”
Ah, yes, now I understand. Taking advantage of the tremendous wealth to be garnered from the…vast pseudo-round-earth market. If only I’d thought of it before the space agencies…pure genius!
BTW–these people communicate via the world wide web. How do they explain the satillites “orbiting” their flat earth that transmit their ballistically ignorant ideas to other like-minded troglogites? And do they cower in fear during a solar eclipse, when the sun is eaten by that giant sky-dragon?
16 August 2008, on 9:53 am
How do flat earthers explain the rise and fall of the sun and moon and the change of the stars? Do they also believe the moon is flat? If so… how do they explain the changes we’ve noticed when it turns?
How do they explain the fact that it’s impossible to stand on the ground and see more than 3 miles away (due to the curve of the earth)? If this was a flat earth, I should be able to see Mount Everest through a telescope, since it’s the tallest thing on earth.
Do they really believe a huge piece of dirt is just floating through sky? Wouldn’t it make more sense to believe that at the speed we’re traveling + the rotation of the stars would lead to a pretty rounded earth? Or do they believe we’re flat but sitting on a rounded disk?
If we’re on a rounded disk, what direction are we facing? (Is there life on the other side of the disk?) If we’re facing toward the sun and rotating around it … we’d never have night. If we’re horizontal and spinning around the sun again daylight would be affected and there’s no way that all Antarctica would stay cold since it would be closest to the sun. There is also no explanation for the warmer section of the equator.
The only thing that MAKES sense with this flat earth theory is that earth is some kind of checkerboard with a solar display rigged to trick us into believing we’re round. Another one of those “god buried the dinosaurs a certain way so you’d have faith” arguments.
I’m no expert on the solar system or planetary math… but these questions came simply from thinking logically and knowing some facts. Whoever believes the earth is flat is beyond dumb. I don’t even know how to say how dumb they must be. Of course people are going to laugh at them and make them feel bad for their stupid beliefs! Anyone with half a brain could prove them wrong by asking a simple question.
16 August 2008, on 11:50 am
What I’ve never understood is how flat earthers explain what keeps the oceans from just pouring over the edges of the flat earth and running dry. There isn’t enough land to keep them all enclosed. Is there a magic containing wall around the edge of the earth? Then why the ancient fear of sailing off the edge of the world?
16 August 2008, on 12:43 pm
It would be interesting to have a flat-earther come visit us here and see what their answers would be to the many questions we have for them.
16 August 2008, on 2:30 pm
Hmmm…
Here’s a little (relevant?) flat earth tidbit from Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life”, “preliminary” opening segment:
“The Crimson Permanent Assurance (Part 2)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNlYBNTCBG8&feature=related
[check specifically at 5:59 mark of 7:15]
16 August 2008, on 2:39 pm
Questions and Answers Flat Earth.org
Q. What about gravity?
Doofus flat earth answer: Gravity is a lie invented by the purveyors of the inherently false spherical Earth theory. The theory of gravity has never been proven. There is no gravity, only inertia. The Earth moves through space like a giant elevator. We do not fall off because we are kept down by inertia. The Earth has inertia.
16 August 2008, on 3:09 pm
What I’ve never understood is how flat earthers explain what keeps the oceans from just pouring over the edges of the flat earth and running dry. There isn’t enough land to keep them all enclosed. Is there a magic containing wall around the edge of the earth?
I found this explanation at About.com and basically it is magic, or “goddoesit”.
Then why the ancient fear of sailing off the edge of the world?
I haven’t found that explanation yet, but suppose it will be the same thing…he’s got the whole world in his hands or some bullshit.
More: Flat Earth Society. . . have your Excedrin handy.
18 August 2008, on 3:08 pm
I can’t believe I’m responding to this, but that inertia thing is bogus even at face value. The flat Earth would have to be accelerating constantly in order for us to feel a force that duplicates gravity. If the Earth is ~6000 years old, and we’ve been accelerating at 1g since the beginning of the Earth, then we should be travelling at, let’s see… carry the one… (http://www.ajdesigner.com/constantacceleration/cavelocity.php) tells us the answer of something like 6100 times the speed of light.
Take that, Einstein! Checkmate!
18 August 2008, on 9:30 pm
^Aw, c’mon, GDad–anything’s possible with Gob, even the much less reasonable of two explanations.